Belleville Township says a long goodbye

Call in hospice: Belleville Township has another 477 days to live. Township trustees on Tuesday unanimously voted to dissolve the township. But not today.

Of course, the vote came 145 days after Gov. Bruce Rauner signed the bill allowing the township to commit suicide. There was study and legal pondering and serious contemplation going on during those 145 days until trustees reached the unanimous decision that they were no longer going to impose a needless layer of government and taxation on residents.

“Congratulations, you all just made history,” Belleville City Clerk Dallas Cook said.

Appropriate observation, seeing as this process is moving at the pace of history. David McCullough would have no problem chronicling the end of a worthless layer of government exactly atop the Belleville city limits that taxes $1, spends 81 cents on overhead to deliver 19 cents in help for the poor.

There was nothing to stop this eminent body from acting five minutes after Rauner signed the bill. Nothing, except those paychecks for the supervisor, two employees and trustees, plus the power of controlling so much of someone else’s money.

They sit on a reserve of $660,000 from taxing more than they could spend. Instead of just stopping the grotesque property tax scam that they represent, they passed a levy seeking $343,400 again this year.

As if that were not galling enough, on Tuesday we saw Belleville Township Supervisor Dennis Korte lay bare his contempt for taxpayers. He wanted a 3 percent raise for his two employees and was challenged by Trustee Joy Schreiber, who said many taxpayers have not been getting raises for a decade. Korte’s response: “That’s their problem, not ours.”

Wow. What amazing arrogance.

At least the trustees held the line and refused to give the raises.

But here’s another idea: You just give the township’s two employees their severance, the trustees all quit and you all stop collecting and spending tax dollars. Better yet, Belleville decides government doesn’t need to be in the business of forcing taxpayers to donate to the charity of government’s choice.

The only reason taxpayers will support this white elephant for another 477 days is because May 15, 2017, is when the trustees’ terms end. So what? Is someone going to come along and arrest you or force you all to serve your full terms? Just quit. Save taxpayers money now.

Dr. Kerkorkian needs to perform a mercy killing here, only it is the public’s suffering that will end when Belleville Township is put out of our misery.

This story was originally published January 23, 2016 at 1:00 PM with the headline "Belleville Township says a long goodbye."